New Web app could document land loss

Technology has connected people all over the globe in ways never anticipated. Now, a Web app may document the disappearing culture in Terrebonne Parish communities for the world to see.

Nikki BuskeyStaff Writer

Technology has connected people all over the globe in ways never anticipated. Now, a Web app may document the disappearing culture in Terrebonne Parish communities for the world to see.Called “Vanishing Points,” the app is being developed by Florida International University student Sandra Maina, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center.The idea is for community members to log memories, interviews and photos of the places in south Louisiana that are disappearing because of coastal erosion. Maina said she previously worked on projects such as hurricane modelling but wanted to do a more applied project that would benefit society.“It's not just for the community,” Maina said. “It's for others to realize that there are people down here that need our help. They're yelling for help, and no one seems to be listening.”Maina is a protégé with the University Cooperation for Atmospheric Research's SOARS program. SOARS, which stands for Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research in Science, focuses on taking talented undergraduate science students and mentoring them to ensure they succeed in graduate school.Wanting to develop science projects that could service community needs, SOARS students came to Terrebonne Parish last year at the invitation of locals to meet with and listen to the community, said Rebecca Haacker-Santos, head of student opportunities at the University Cooperation for Atmospheric Research.“The idea of science and service is where we want to go,” Haacker-Santos said.She added that the community was amazingly welcoming to the students, and it was a great learning opportunity.“What (the students) learned early on was they were not the experts,” she said. “They were there to learn themselves.”Maina eventually connected with Jonathan Foret, executive director of the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center, who said he came up with the idea of developing the Vanishing Points after talking with Houma engineer Clifford Smith. Smith suggested it would be good to find a way to better inform the community of elevations on the coast's rapidly sinking landscape.The two presented their idea at a community dinner and got a lot of feedback. Initially, they planned to release Vanishing Points as an iPhone app but realized many residents didn't have iPhones.They switched to a more-accessible Web-app format.The idea of the Web app is to allow it to become a tool for communities to document their culture. Initially, Maina envisioned visiting bayou communities and having residents identify geographical points that are important to them. She would interview locals, come up with a narrative of the site, get historic photos of the place and obtain photos of how it looks today.“It will allow for the transfer of knowledge,” Foret said. “It focuses on points of cultural importance identified by community members.”That might include locations like the La Butte mound cemetery in Cocodrie, surrounded by sinking land and open water.They also acquired land-loss maps from the U.S. Geological Survey and hope to use them to create an animation that can show how fast land is disappearing in the area.But now Foret hopes to also recruit students from local high schools who have been working with the Wetlands Discovery Center to train them how to work with the app and collect the data. Maina will develop the protocol for their data collection.That will ensure that there are new generations of students keeping the app updated and will also get students involved in their own personal history, Foret said.“The real goal of the app is to motivate people to take action on coastal land loss,” Foret said. “We're saying, ‘We have treasures down here that deserve to be protected, and we're identifying them for you.' ”Maina said she is developing a graduate thesis project around the app. Once it's up and running, she hopes to study how the app affects risk assessment in communities that have used it.She hopes to have the app finished by May to conduct that research, and it should be available by the end of the summer to the rest of the public.If the app is successful, it could be adapted for use in other communities facing natural and ecological disasters, Maina said.

Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or nicole.buskey@houmatoday.com.

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